The Yogi Adityanath government has notified the formation of a “Special Security Force” whose full powers remained unclear, prompting speculation among the BJP’s rivals that it might be used against them.

While the government only said the SSF would protect courts, installations and small airports and have “special powers to arrest and search”, police sources suggested it would be able to make arrests and searches without a warrant.

Currently, the police can make arrests without warrants only for cognisable offences — serious charges like murder, rape, assault or theft — but not for non-cognisable offences like public nuisance or mischief.

“For searches, the police need court permission in non-cognisable cases. In case of cognisable offences, the police can enter a house under certain circumstance — for example, when someone is hiding there after killing someone,” Saurabh Tiwari, an advocate, said.

He said a state government was empowered to get a law enacted to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Adityanath government did not make Sunday’s notification public. But the chief minister had on June 26 said he wanted to constitute a “Special Security Force” to bring the crime rate down, appearing to imply the force would have special powers.

The state cabinet promulgated an ordinance on July 30 for the special force’s formation, and the Assembly recently turned it into law.

Awanish Awasthi, additional chief secretary with the state home department who announced the formation of the force, said without elaboration: “While the officers of the new force will have special powers to arrest anybody or conduct a search operation, a guideline to this effect would be chalked out soon.”

He went on to call the force “a dream project of the chief minister”.

“Besides providing security to district courts, the new force will also be deployed at the upcoming (small) airports in Uttar Pradesh (in Kushinagar, Jewar and elsewhere). Private financial institutions too can hire the force’s services against a payment,” Awasthi said.

A police department source said: “An SSF officer can arrest anyone or conduct a search on any premises without a warrant. No court proceedings will be possible against SSF members without the state government’s permission.”

He added: “The only apparent check would be that the SSF would need indubitable evidence that the arrest or raid was necessary as the suspect could otherwise have escaped or tampered with evidence.”

He continued: “We already have a Special Task Force that deals with sensitive cases. We fear that the SSF is only going to create confusion and chaos.”

Dwijendra Tripathi, a senior state Congress leader, said: “It’s clearly a preparation for the 2022 Assembly elections. Adityanath wants to intimidate all his vocal political rivals before the elections.”

A home department source said: “The SSF will certainly have more power than the ordinary police but the details have not been finalised. We have sent certain proposals, which are under the state law department’s review. Everything will be clear within a week.”

Awasthi said Rs 1,747 crore would be spent initially in forming the new force, to be headed by an additional director-general of police.

“There will be 9,919 employees in the five battalions of the SSF. Initially we will take the help of the Provincial Armed Constabulary in constituting the SSF,” he said.